This blog provides delicious,traditional, vegetarian, South Indian Recipes from my mother Chitra Amma's kitchen. There are few 'world recipes' as well!
Thanks to Shravan, Pranav, Akash, Tara, Guggs, Shankari, Adu, Dhrithi, and Appa Ramachandran for the photos!

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Saturday, August 19, 2017

That was the time in my life when I was totally engrossed in books regarding Mahatma Gandhi's life and the freedom movement of India. I often shared few mini Gandhi Thata stories with my two year old talkative daughter. After the story session I made it a point to make her answer a few questions to test her comprehension. When she was posed with a question as to what Gandhi Thata ate, pat came the reply: "Kadlekai!" "Aattu Paal (goat's milk)!" she reverted with great enthusiasm even before I could finish my next question regarding his drink! She had to repeat her performance many times when the circle of audience started growing! Kadlekai/Peanuts was my little tot's favourite snack especially when it was made into undes. Roasted or boiled Kadlekai/Peanuts (also known as Badavara Badami, meaning poor man's almonds) are nutritious snacks by themselves. It is also savoured in Sambars, Sundals and chutneys. Starting from Super Markets, the local grocery stores to the small Petti Angadis (Miscellaneous shops) the ubiquitous Kadlekai Unde (Peanut Laddus) are sold everywhere.

Kadlekai Unde is a healthy sweet which can be savoured as a snack or as a dessert or even in between meals!

INGREDIENTS

Peanuts/Kadlekai - 1 glass

Powdered jaggery - 1 glass

METHOD

1. Roast the peanuts in a heavy bottomed kadai on medium flame till the skins are loosened.

2. Allow to cool and rub the nuts in between your palms to separate the husk.

3. Clean the peanuts and break them into chunks using a mixer.

4. Dissolve jaggery in one cup of warm water and filter.

5. Boil the filtered jaggery water in a thick bottomed kadai till it becomes thick and sticky.

(Drop little of the syrup in cold water. If the drop does not disintegrate, and if you are able to roll it into a ball using your thumb and forefinger the syrup is ready.)

6. Switch off flame and blend the prepared kadlekai/ peanuts into the syrup.

7. When it cools down a little and is comfortable to touch, it is ready to be shaped into undes/balls.

8. Grease your palms, scoop out a small portion of the mixture and shape it into an unde/ball.

9. Similarly shape more undes/balls using up the entire mixture. Place them apart till they are thoroughly cooled so that they do not stick together

10. The mixture might harden and lose stickiness towards the end. In that case heat the remaining mixture on low flame till the jaggery starts melting. Switch off flame and then shape the remaining undes/balls.

Allow the Kadlekai Undes / Peanut Balls to cool and then store them in a clean dry jar.

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Hello

Welcome to Chitra Amma's Kitchen.

I am Dibs. I am a born Foodie. I love to cook; love to eat; love to feed folks who appreciate good food. Blogging provides me a great way of documenting my mother, Chitra’s recipes, as a ready reference irrespective which time zone I live in. Amma honestly makes the best food I've ever had, and somehow, the anecdotes she tells us, make the dishes taste all the better.Most posts here are written by my mother Chitra. It’s her recipes, along with related reminiscences of people, places and anecdotes. She writes, I post!What started for a lark, has now become a serious hobby, drawing in participation from the whole family. My father, S.R. Ramachandran has started clicking away every dish made at home! Aunts, cousins, siblings, contribute to photos, and ask for recipes.We try to illustrate implements such as utensils, grinding stones and so on from the ‘pre-electric-mixer’ days wherever possible. We hope this will make an interesting read for future generations, on how food was cooked in earlier times!The site is still in its infancy, and slowly evolving, as our skills improve! We invite your comments, ideas, and questions, and will attempt answering them.

Thank you for your visit, and we hope you enjoy your stay at Chitra Amma’s Kitchen.